The Great Sphero Challenge!

Quite recently, we heard of a programmable robot called Sphero. After trying one through our Tech Club connection we thought it was SO COOL we purchased one of these awesome robots for ourselves! As a week-long project we were assigned Challenges to test Sphero’s abilities (and ours!) by coding it through obstacle courses! These were the first 4 we were given.

Sphero challenge #1

CODE Sphero through the obstacle course: maze must have 3 left turns and 4 right|must have at least 1 ramp throughout the maze. Seems simple doesn’t it? Well sometimes simple is hard… and that was the case here it was outstandingly difficult to code directions… but we did it! WHOOP WHOOP!!!

Sphero challenge #2

Build a chariot for Sphero out of pipe cleaners, straws and tape that will hold two passengers – must have 8 turns 4 right 4 left|make the maze out of blocks| must have at least two ramps. BIG TIP!!! When sphero is driving by itself, the turning radius is different then when there’s a chariot on the back and it takes more power. We ended up making many different chariots but because of the turning radius we never made it through. But we did teach Siri to tell a story on command!

Challenge #3

Create a maze. Use measuring tape to define the edges, maze should have 8 turns: 5 right, 3 left, 1 at a 30 degree angle. Create a ramp. Sphero should be able to go backward through the maze. That was proved too difficult to solve. The backwards part was impossible at the point of what we know, the maze was cool, but backwards… maybe next week!!

Challenge# 4

Drive Sphero up a 12″ ramp. We ended up making several different designs and at one point we were so desperate we tried to make an elevator to the top! With a little help from Mom, a little extra speed, a bit of traction and BOOM we made it to the top only to fall right back down the ramp! As you might imagine there was a whole lot of shrieks of joy, leaping, dancing and a couple of tears of happiness!!! It was really fun and we learned so much about slopes, coding, friction and velocity. Stay tuned for more Sphero adventures!!!